“But why did
we have to move mum?”exclaimed Rosie in an exasperated voice.
“I told you dear” sighed her mother “Your father has a new job in the
country”. “That’s right” mumbled her
father. This is stupid thought 14 year old Rosie Jones, why her family have to
move to a massive big house in the country, away from all her friends and
family she just didn’t know. Her Dad’s job wasn’t that important.
“Are we there yet?” she pestered. “2 minutes Rose” laughed her father,
“and I thought you were too old for that”.
That night
as Rosie lay in her horrible big new bed in her horrible big new room she was
reading. She was reading an old news article she’d found in a box in her room.
It was about a young girl about her age 20 years ago called Millie Aston. She
had been abducted and supposedly murdered but the police had never found a
trace of her. Oh and she had lived in
Rosie’s house. Rosie felt a shiver down her spine as she read this. Supposing
the killer was still here? What would happen if he came after her? Then she
went straight to sleep and forgot about it.
A few weeks
later and Rosie was finally settling down. Her parents had been worried about
her but she had made friends at her school and was kind to everyone in the
village.
Then she was
gone.
Her parents
called her on a Thursday to ask what time she would be home from her night out
but her friends said she’d never gone to the cinema. It was like a repeat of
Millie Aston. They called the police and they started combing the house and
grounds to find her. Her distraught parents did not think the efforts of the
police was enough, so they hired the private detective Grace Ingles to see if
she could help them.
“Hello Mrs
Jones, I am Grace Ingles. I believe you called? I hope you do not mind, but I
brought my niece and helper, Lilly. She has left school and her mother died so
she is under my care. May we come in?” The fragile Mrs Jones was taken aback by
this sudden introduction.
“Well yes,
hello, do come in” she mumbled in reply.
“Thank you very much, and good to meet you” said
the teenage girl who breezed in after Grace, “I’m Lilly, by the way.”Mrs Jones
shook her head in disbelief and followed obediently.
“So when was
the last time you saw your daughter?” asked Grace.
“The morning
of the day she left for school” said Amy Jones calmly.
“OK, we are
going to have a look around, if that’s OK” said the detective as she rose to
leave.
“Right,
first I want to look at her room” whispered Grace, as Lilly bounded up beside
her. As they stepped into Rosie’s room, Grace had a look of deep sadness on her
face. The room was exactly as the young girl had left it on that fateful
Thursday morning. As Lily scanned the room there was a cry from Grace. “I
thought so” she exclaimed, picking up a piece of paper off the floor. “I’d
heard about this case before.” “What
have you found?” asked Lilly. “Listen to
this Lilly, Millie Aston was a girl who lived in this house 20 years ago. She
was abducted too, from this same village, but she was never found.”
“And you
think there’s a connection between that girl’s disappearance and Rosie’s?”
gasped Lilly in admiration.
“Well it’s
only a hunch” replied Grace, “but I do want to talk to everyone in the village
who was around 20 years ago”.
“It annoys
me when people don’t answer their doors” shuddered Lilly as she and Grace stood
outside one of the few houses in the little village in the freezing cold.
“Hello Miss,
sorry to disturb you, we are investigating the disappearance of Rosie Jones
from the Manor house. Can we ask you some questions?” asked Grace as the door
finally inched open.
In the third
house they visited they got what they were looking for.
“Why, yes,
I’ve been here over 20 years with my old girl”, said the old Reverend Davis. AS
Grace looked round the room she found herself asking “so did you know Rosy,
Revered Davis? “.
“Why, yes,
she used to come and sit with Edith and me, and chat in the evenings. So nice
to hear how the young minds think, you know”.
“OK, thank
you. Do you mind if I have a look around” asked Grace for a second time as Lilly
stood beside her.
“Please do”
replied the old man. As Grace walked round the room she suddenly thought
“So where is
your wife at the moment Reverend, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh um she’s
at oh what’s it called oh, the Town Council meeting that’s it” was the hesitant
reply.
“Ok thank
you for your time Reverend” said Grace hastily as she ushered Lilly out, “we’ll
go now”.
“Well” said
Lily as they trudged their way up to the big house. “What did you think of our
little excursion”?
“Oh it was
good” answered Grace. “I think I learnt a lot”.
“Lilly”
asked Grace as they sat round a table in the parlour of the hotel they were
staying at.
“Uh
huh”replied Lilly sleepily for it had been a tiring day.
“Did you notice
anything strange about that house?”asked Grace eagerly.
“Well to be
honest no” mumbled Lily. “Did you?”
“Yes, a lot”
was the unhappy sounding reply.”There was the fact that he never made a comment
about this 20 yrs ago even when we asked him if he’d been there, and also the
fact that he didn’t know where his wife was”.
“Do you
think he did it?”asked Lilly who was now thoroughly interested.
“I don’t
know Lil, I just don’t know”.
The next day
Grace was uneasy and restless. Lilly was worried because all she was doing was
pacing up and down the room thinking and whenever Lilly asked if she could
help, Grace bit her head off. Then suddenly she exclaimed “Aha I’ve got it”
“Please
Lilly it’s the only way to catch this awful person, you’ll be safe all the time!”
pleaded Grace as she tried to get Lilly to co-operate with her plan.
“N o spells
no” was Lilly’s very stubborn answer “I will not be used as bait to try and
lure in an abductor to try and kill me!” she added for extra morale. This was
after Grace had proposed to Lilly that they use her to pose as a 14 yr old girl
and pretend she was the Jones’ adopted daughter in replacement of Rosie,
therefore luring in the abductor and catching them.
After a lot
of persuasion and promises Lilly finally gave in.
“Ok ok I’ll
do it” sighed Lilly. “But only if we can go home afterwards”.
After that
they enrolled Lilly in school as the “new girl” of 14 in the village. Then they
only had to wait a few days. Grace had put a tracking device in Lily’s shoes so
they always knew where she was and what she was doing. Then a couple of days
after she’d done that Grace noticed something strange going on with the
tracker. Lily wasn’t going the agreed walk home through the field. She had
stopped and was now moving very fast left.
“Right lets
go find our abductor” smiled Grace as she started off following the tracker to
where Lilly was. As she was walking Grace suddenly realised something. She had
been so stupid and put Lilly in so much danger by making her be bait! Then Grace
started to run. The tracker led her to a clearing where it said Lilly was.
Grace looked around her cautiously and then suddenly heard a muffled attempt to
make a sound coming from her left.
“Thank you”
was all the Jones’ could say when Grace brought back an undernourished but
stable Rosie, A very angry Lilly and an even angrier Mrs Edith Davis.
Yes although
Lilly had thought it was Mr Reverend Davis who had came up behind her and put
her hand over her mouth and stopped her screaming it was actually his wife who
was following young girls around. Edith Davis had been hiding Rosie Jones and
Millie Aston in her cellar with gags around their mouths and very little food
and water. Unfortunately Millie Aston hadn’t survived the 20 yrs she had been
kept down there. She claimed she did it because of the young daughter she lost
when she was walking home from school. She said she had wanted revenge on the
world.
“So all in a
good day’s work I think” chirped Grace as she and Lily made a sound as if to
say “Indeed” as they packed the car to go home and to solve another mystery.
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